Today’s collect is a perfect outline of the Gospel. “O Lord, we beseech You, mercifully hear our prayers, and having set us free from the bonds of sin, defend us from all evil.” This is precisely what Jesus does for the blind man of Jericho and what He does for you.

Before Jesus heals the blind man, He tells His disciples for the third and final time what is about to happen. There is no spiritual language perceptible only to faith like we see in Jesus’ final instruction to the disciples in John’s Gospel. This is black and white, give it to me straight, truth. Jesus is about to be handed over, mocked, shamefully treated, beaten, killed, and raised from the dead. No talk about “Where I am going, you know, and the way you know.” No talk about not leaving the disciples as orphans. That will all come later. Right now, it’s all laid out in simple language. But the disciples don’t get it. Because Jesus had yet to give them the Holy Spirit, they didn’t have a way to comprehend that this was good. The Spirit wasn’t enlightening them yet, showing them what St. John confessed about Jesus being the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world. It sounds like a scary prediction of making the wrong people mad and having to pay the price. So they follow Jesus, not exactly sure how to make sense of what He has told them.

And then the blind man. The man who could not be silenced cried out for mercy. He prayed, he pleaded, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” By these words he confessed that there was no help for him, in body or soul, except for Jesus, the promised Son of David, who will give sight to the blind and salvation from sin. Jesus knows all things, so He knows the faith this man has. His faith is made known through his repeated cry for mercy. The crowd tries to silence him, to shove him to the back, but he persists. He will not be deterred from receiving Divine mercy. His faith yearns for that one thing, for perfect healing. It will not stop until it has been fed, until Isaiah’s words are true: “He will come and save you.”

So Jesus, to the chagrin of the crowd, goes to the man they wish would go away. He analyzes this man. He sees what he truly needs. Yes, his sight is restored, but that’s not what really goes on here. Our English translation is completely wrong. “Your faith has made you well.” There are different words Jesus could have used if He meant “Your faith has restored your health.” The words that flow from Our Lord’s lips are “Your faith has saved you.” Your faith has delivered you into divine salvation. Who cares about eyesight! You can go to heaven with 20/20 vision. You can go to heaven with missing eyes. You can go to heaven blind. You cannot go to heaven with sin.

In our Collect’s words, Jesus set him free from the bonds of his sin. He looked at the man and saw that the problem wasn’t blindness, it was sin. This is a total system failure. The eyes are only a symptom of the larger, damning problem. He needs his sin taken away, his soul healed, and his eternal life spared and delivered from all danger. So Jesus tells him that he is saved and then He goes to accomplish it. He goes to pull the blind man and the whole world back from the brink of evil and eternal death.

This blind man is representative of every single one of us. Each of us are plagued by any number of diseases, frustrations, complaints, needs, and other problems. They may seem like they’re the thing that really needs attention, but Jesus looks at us and sees that none of those things are the real problem. Just like the blind man, each of us has a total system failure. Original sin completely owns us, and we add our own actual sins to it. Our problem is not sicknesses, let downs, or failures. Our problem is that sin is so deeply implanted that we cannot even comprehend how bad it is. Our nature is corrupted and we cannot be what God created us to be. We need a Savior from sin, someone who will come to us and tell us that we are saved from it.

And that’s precisely what Jesus does. We see the symptoms, we complain to Him about them, but He comes to us and heals us from the one thing that really needs the healing. He may choose to remove what we think ails us, but more often than not He leaves that thing as a cross, a way to remind us that we need His mercy, but He does the greater thing by taking away all our sin. That’s what He has already done for you once this morning and soon will do again. He already declared you free from sin by His innocent suffering and death. And as you come to the Altar He delivers that suffering and death to you as He gives you His Body to eat and His Blood to drink. And right now, as you hear His Word read and preached, as you sing it in the chants and the hymns, the Holy Spirit creates faith while you are hearing, faith which gladly receives all that Christ gives and longs for it as often as it can be obtained. Because of that work of the Holy Spirit, when you hear “The Body of Christ, given for you,” what you’re really hearing is “Your faith has saved you.”

Faith saves you because that is where the Holy Spirit works in you to open the eyes of faith to see clearly the good in Good Friday. He reveals to you that Jesus hanging on the cross, crying out, “It is finished” is all for you, all to heal your sinful, dying self. He reveals to you that Jesus’ resurrection is a picture of your own, a glimpse of the future glory that awaits. In Christ’s resurrection, you see that these weak, frail, and failing bodies will be restored to life, health, and strength on the Last Day when He returns.

Until that Day, the Holy Spirit lives out the Collect in you. He pleads for you for forgiveness, praying that the Father would count Jesus’ righteousness as your own. He brings you to this place where He sets you free from the bonds of your sin. And through all your days He defends you from evil, reminding you daily that because you are in Christ, you have everything you need: forgiveness, restoration, healing, and resurrection.

We tend to think of the Parable of the Sower as a commentary on evangelism. As congregations spread the Word of God, the majority of our work will not result in a harvest. A remarkable 75% of the effort appears to be wasted as faith is either never created at all, or quickly meets its demise. Only 25% of the Word yields a harvest. While this does give some insight into why every congregation isn’t bursting at the seams and planting new churches every year, it’s not the main reason why Jesus tells the Parable. Three verses after the Parable Jesus tells us why He told it. He said, “Take care, then, how you hear.” That’s a sobering sentence. “Take care, then, how you hear.” The Parable of the Sower isn’t about analyzing everyone else and how they responded to the Word. The Parable of the Sower is about me taking a look at my own life to realize that I have not been careful in how I heard and received the Word.

What this means is that, if we were to do a soil analysis, we’d find that we’re all four types of soil at different times. Which is a thought that makes us uncomfortable, doesn’t it? This shows that not one of us sitting here this morning are the beautiful, well-tilled, nutrient-dense soil we’ve convinced ourselves we are. It means there are times when we allow the devil to snatch the Word out of our heart. It means there are times we fail to allow the Word to be nourished and our faith suffers. It means there are times we make the Word compete for our attention and it loses. Thanks be to God that there are times the Holy Spirit triumphs over our sinful wills and allows the Word to take root and bear fruit!

“Take care, then, how you hear.” That is Jesus saying, “Repent!” Each of us must come face-to-face with the reality of what we confessed, perhaps by rote and not by heart, not all that long ago. We are poor, miserable sinners. We not only have sins and iniquities, we have welcomed sin and iniquity. The Word of God has been brought to us by the Holy Spirit and we have said, “Yeah, that’s nice, but sin looks a whole lot better right now. I’d rather daydream about how I can get all of my neighbor’s money. I’d rather spread the gossip instead of protecting their reputation. I’d rather give into the sexual temptation than remove myself from the situation. It’s much more therapeutic for me to hold this grudge against that jerk than to actually do what Jesus asks me to do and resolve the conflict.” So we allow the devil to swoop in, snatch the seed, and leave us worse than we started. “Take care, then, how you hear.”

And then there are times we don’t allow the Word the nourishment it deserves. We come on Sunday, the seed is cast, and it tries to grow, but we don’t allow any water to be poured on the seed; we don’t allow contrition and confession and absolution to do the work of removing the rocks. We roll over and think, “God would want me to get rest. And besides, it’s better to go to church once a month than never at all, right?” Or we don’t take even a few minutes out of the day to read a Psalm, to meditate on Scripture, to pray, praise, and give thanks. We receive the Word with joy on Sunday, but have no time or use for it the rest of the week. Take care, then, how you hear and how you use your time.

The slipperiest of slopes is making our faith compete for our attention among all the other things in our lives, treating faith as if it’s just one more thing to fit in or if it’s equal to everything else in our life. We can only focus on so many things. It’s not possible to get our kids to three different places after school gets out, fit in our own activities, do the household chores, make sure homework gets done, make sure we’re ready for the next day, sneak in a few minutes of rest, and still allow time in the Word. Maybe that kind of active family lifestyle isn’t yours anymore, but the concept is the same for all of us, regardless of lifestyle. So many things compete for our time and attention, and it’s all too easy to allow faith get pushed to the side. “Well, I’ll hear the Word on Sunday. I’ve gotta get the kids to their game.” “There’s no way you can expect me to stay for Bible Study. That’s when I go grocery shopping.” Jesus is warning each of us: it’s easy to be one who hears, “but as [we] go on [our] way [we] are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and [our] fruit does not mature.” Take care, then, how you hear. What’s more important: your faith or fitting in one more activity?

So, of course, we have seen that we’re all bad at this. None of us are as careful as we should be about how we hear the Word and guard our lives. What’s the fix? This is where the fix-it attitude of “I created this mess, I’ll fix this mess” doesn’t work. This isn’t a self-help Gospel on how to get your life in order and have a prosperous life. You don’t have to be a seasoned farmer or award-winning gardener to know that soil doesn’t change itself. The rocks don’t remove themselves; the hard and compacted soil doesn’t till itself; not even the good soil fertilizes itself. Soil is made better only by an outside force acting on it. So, if you’re soil in Jesus’ Parable, it means something from outside of yourself needs to do the improvement, right? What is that outside force? “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” That’s right—the Word is your only hope, because the Word brings the Holy Spirit who does all of the work. You’re only going to get your life in order, you’re only going to improve spiritually if the Holy Spirit does it through Word, and Sacraments where the Word is given to you in a tangible form. The Holy Spirit, through the Word, shows you your sin and corrects you. The Holy Spirit, through the Word trains you in righteousness, that is, teaches you that your righteousness comes not from what you do, but from Christ your Righteousness making you righteous!

The Holy Spirit is the one who gets your life in order, who aligns your priorities so that your faith receives the nourishment it needs. He did His work this morning by bringing you here. Even if you hit snooze a few times too many, you still listened to His call. He brought you to this place so He can deliver to you the forgiveness of sins Christ won on the cross, forgiveness for all the times you gave into temptation or gave your spiritual life the brush off. That’s because as He does His work through reminding you of Christ’s willing obedience, suffering, and death in your place, faith will, like a seed in good soul, take root and bring forth the fruit of good works. And by His work in the Word He now transforms you by tilling your stony heart. He cuts away the thorns and the weeds so the seed to takes root and yields a harvest a hundredfold. The Holy Spirit is the one who motivates you, who helps you set your priorities right so that your desire is no longer sinful, selfish desires, but every good work, everything that is pleasing to God and good for your neighbor. He answers your prayer to be defended in body and soul against all adversity by defending you with Himself and placing the full armor of God upon you.

And all of this He does recklessly, not counting the cost. Your God is not stingy in His forgiveness or in His work. He knows the rocks will reappear, that you will sin again even after He forgives you. But He does not tire of digging up the rocks of sin, pulling out the weeds and thorns of this world’s cares, and pruning away what leads to death. The same God who gave the guests at Cana’s wedding hundreds of bottles of wine even after they had their fill, who flings the seed of the Word with reckless abandon, eager to spread it everywhere, who fed the five thousand to their heart’s content, is the same God who forgives all your sins and preserves you in body and soul to life everlasting. He will not stop working on you, because He loves you, He longs for your salvation, and He will give everything, even His life, to make sure you are His now and eternally.

God has promised to give everyone what is appropriate, what they need to sustain this body and life. Christ Himself reminded us God takes care of the birds, the flowers, the grasses, and everything else. If He knows the plight of something as seemingly insignificant as grass, which grows wherever and however it wants, how much more will He take care of us?

Despite that humbling promise, we covet. To covet is to have a consuming desire to have something that belongs to someone else. We can’t stand that our neighbor has something we don’t, and we want it. Thinking about wanting it takes over our every thought. And so often, coveting takes on a longing for role reversal. We don’t just want what the other person has, we want theirs so they have nothing. Coveting goes well beyond things. We think that another person’s talents are wasted on them and would be much better if we had them. We covet health, pain free bodies, and all kinds of other things. If we remain unrepentant about the sin of covetousness, it can quickly consume our whole life, leaving us nothing but bitterness toward our neighbor.

That covetousness is the common denominator in all three readings this morning. The people of Israel are in the wilderness, without the most basic of needs: water. The Old Testament reading is from Exodus 17. In Exodus 15, just a mere two chapters prior, all of Israel is rejoicing, making music and dancing, exclaiming, “I will sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and his rider He has thrown into the sea!” (Ex. 15:1) They had just received their long-awaited, long-prayed-for deliverance from slavery. Now that giving God is forgotten. They are angry. They aren’t praying for water, asking God to remember His mercy. The translation we heard makes the people sound too polite. It says they were contending with Moses, but the Hebrew word is much sharper. They’re yelling at Moses, stirring one another up to a seething anger, ready to bring a legal charge against him for, as they see it, bringing them to the wilderness to die. They covet the Egyptians. This line of thinking is one they’ll vocalize later. They think the Egyptians have it too good. They have water, they have meat, they have delicious spices, they have grand structures they didn’t labor to build. The Israelites completely ignore God and His gracious providence and go right for a consuming desire to have what the Egyptians have so they can be the ones perishing in the wilderness, starving, thirsty, and exhausted. God tells Moses to strike the rock to give water to the people. Moses complies, but he gives the place a double name: Massah and Meribah, which mean “tempted” and “contention,” because there the covetousness of the Israelites despised what God had given them and tempted Him to anger, asking if He was even among His people.

As St. Paul explained in his Epistle to the Corinthians, the people of Israel didn’t grumble about any ordinary water. Though the rock Moses struck was an ordinary rock, it represented Someone extraordinary. The Rock that followed them, the Rock that gave them spiritual water was Christ. God Himself dwelt among His people, whether they realized it or not. But because of their covetous hearts they despised what great Gifts were given to them. For that sin, God was not well pleased, and most of them perished and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. This wilderness is not just literal, meaning that they were buried between Egypt and the Promised Land. Spiritually, the wilderness is anyplace where God is not, which is hell. For their selfish desires, for their longing for everything but what God gave them, they have received their just rewards.This covetousness extends to the Gospel reading as well. Those hired first covet the lavish gift given to those hired at the eleventh hour. Instead of marveling at the graciousness of the employer, their evil eyes see unfair treatment, not divine goodness. Just like the wicked Israelites scattered in the physical and spiritual wilderness, those grumbling day-long workers are cast out of the house of the employer. He tells them “take what is yours,” that is, what you deserve, “and go your way.”

Though indignation may seem the real sin in today’s Gospel, it is really coveting. Those first hired covet the superabundant grace given to those who worked for one hour. They forget the grace that was shown to them in the first place! The landowner in the parable didn’t hire prime workers! Those who stood around waiting to be hired are the people who couldn’t hold down a job. They didn’t deserve a fair day’s pay and were lucky to get any kind of employment.

We’re just as guilty of coveting. We covet those who live openly unrepentant lifestyles but experience deathbed conversions, coming to faith in Jesus Christ and receive the same full forgiveness that we do, who sacrifice our Sunday mornings for churchgoing and our limited income for offerings. But just like those first hired, that’s to rely on our own merits and not to rely on the grace of God. Though the sins of the eleventh hour repenters may be more public, we have received just as much grace as they.

Hear again the seemingly simple phrase from the Epistle: “That spiritual Rock that followed them…was Christ.” The Rock followed the Israelites. Christ went with them all the way. He didn’t abandon them when they held their violent uprising in Exodus 17 or at any point in the Old Testament. Christ graciously followed Israel, providing for all their needs, even when they grumbled against Him. He never forsook them, as He rightly could have.

Neither will God forsake you. He cannot forsake you because He has already forsaken Christ in your place. He visited all His righteous wrath upon Christ on the cross as He bore all your sin. The damnation that you deserved, the wilderness you should have received was given to Christ. Because all of your sin has been paid for, there is only grace for you. And that grace was poured upon you when the Baptismal waters ran over your head. There the grace of God was given to you, grace far more than you deserved or could ever ask for or desire.

This grace transforms your coveting from a sinful covetousness of the things of your neighbor to a righteous coveting, coveting the grace of God. Now, by the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, you crave with the deepest longing the things that deliver Christ to you, that make the grace of God yours. That coveting of grace has drawn you here this day to receive Christ as He speaks His living Word to you, to receive Christ as He comes to you in His Body and Blood.

This grace of God will sustain you through all your days. As you just sang, “For though I know my heart’s condition, I also know my Savior’s voice.” You know your Savior’s voice that speaks in sweetest measures of grace upon grace. He has spoken to you: “I forgive you all your sins” and one day will speak again to you: “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord” (Mt. 25:21).

'Tis good, Lord, to be here! We sing what St. Peter spoke, a confession that it’s good to be in the presence of Jesus, to get a glimpse of heaven. It’s good to see an end to the sin and misery and junk that is a part of life in this world. But what about when we have to leave that glimpse? What about when we, like Peter, James, and John have to go back to the plain? Today we have Jesus’ promise that He goes with us to the plain, through the valley of the shadow of death. Today we hear His promise that what we glimpsed for a fleeting moment will be ours eternally.

The Transfiguration of Our Lord is a day that gives us strength to set out on our journey. We’re just a few weeks away from the season of Lent, from our journey through spiritual warfare to Our Lord’s cross and death. The Transfiguration is celebrated on this threshold of Pre-Lent and Lent so we remember where we’re going. For Peter, James, and John it was good for them to see what they saw. They saw Jesus shine with unborrowed light, they saw His face and garments like the sun, they saw the incarnate Lord hold converse high. Though they all fled and abandoned Jesus in His time of greatest need, this incident, this mountaintop vision was in the back of their minds. It gave them strength when they questioned. It gave them pause on Easter as they looked for the body of Jesus and did not find it. Yes, they were afraid. Yes, they doubted. But would it have been all-out apostasy without the mountain of Transfiguration? Would they have lost all hope had they not seen a glimpse of the glorified Christ just a brief time before they saw Him die in the most shameful of ways?

We can relate to Peter, James, and John and the rest of the disciples. We know what it is to have moments of doubt and fear, moments when we’re ready to give up. We’ve all been there, on the edge of despair, certain that taking the next step is the biggest mistake we could make. We know the dread of getting out of bed because we know it’s the day we meet with the oncologist, fail the test, plan the funeral, sign the bankruptcy papers, find out we weren’t good enough to make the team. And congregations go through uncertain times, too. Though God has blessed us each day of our 25 years, it doesn’t mean there haven’t been questions and struggles along the way. Did we go the right direction? Did we choose the right location? Should we have done this or that?

The Transfiguration is a type. In church-speak, a type is a person or an event that prefigures someone or something yet to come. Isaac is a type of Christ because he was Abraham’s only son about to be sacrificed. Moses was a type of Christ because he led God’s people out of slavery. The Transfiguration is a type of Christ’s resurrection, ascension, and reign at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. It shows what will be openly seen one day.

This type of the Transfiguration was good for Peter, James, and John because they got a brief respite from the struggle. They got to see Jesus as He truly is, not veiled in His state of humiliation. God grants each of us Transfiguration-like events as well. He sends us times of complete joy and peace. He sends us that feeling of being completely loved. He sends us that moment of awe when we sing His praises and understand that we are in His presence. He sends us the joy of laughter and togetherness. He sends us the beauty of a sunrise or the mountains or a perfectly tended garden or the wash of the waves hitting the shore. He sends us those times when we see or experience that peace and bliss that will be permanent one day.The Lord has given this congregation our own Mount of Transfiguration moments of joy as well. He sent enthusiastic phone calls to Pastor Lach the same day the ads in the newspaper announcing the first service. He sent those 76 people who attended the first service in the school cafeteria. He gave the joy of the groundbreaking and the dedication. He gave laughter and fellowship at countless church picnics, golf outings, ski trips, and the like. But more importantly He gave power to His Word as it was spoken. He gave new birth as each of those 83 people who have been Baptized at Epiphany were brought to the Font. He gave His Spirit to those 111 who have confessed their faith in the presence of God and this congregation and asked for His aid to remain firm in their confession. He gives free forgiveness each Divine Service in the Word of Absolution and in His Body and Blood. So, whether in moments personal or congregational we get glimpses into the joy that will be ours above. We get those blessed moments to carry us through the difficult ones.

We want to stay in those moments, though. Like Peter, we want to build tents and stay in the happiness. We don’t want to go to the plain, we don’t want to go back to honking horns and morning commutes when we’re relaxing on vacation. We don’t want to go back to the realities of life when we’re finally relaxed in the Lord’s house. Can’t I just stay here and be a doorkeeper instead of going back out there to the realities of life? No. We have to put up with the realities of being in the Church Militant. Satan attacks. Temptation knocks and we answer when we know we shouldn’t. Doubt and despair gain the upper hand.

But Jesus Christ is there. He goes with you to the plain. Your Lord God is a Sun and Shield. He is with you always, through everything, His hand leading you. He is there to speak to you, reminding you of what He has done for you. He reminds you that He has put death to death. He has drowned sin in the deepest sea. He has brought light to despair and joy to gloom. He has brought healing to disease and wholeness to brokenness. Because you are Christ’s, because you are in Him and He is in you, everything bad is turned into something good. That good isn’t yours to experience completely and constantly yet, but it will be. Until then, rest and rejoice in the Lord’s blessings. Rejoice in the Transfiguration moments He gives you. One day you will see His glory face to face.

]]>Sun, 03 Feb 2019 08:00:00 GMThttp://www.epiphanydorr.org/sermons/fourth-sunday-after-the-epiphany-2019We all know the feeling of drowning. Maybe not actual drowning in water, but at least metaphorical drowning. You know what it feels like when you can’t keep your head above water, when there seems to be no reprieve from the waves of life crashing over the side of your little boat. The situation in which the disciples found themselves in today’s Gospel is entirely relatable. First comes the panic, then the expectation of help which does not arrive, followed by a call to the Lord for help. What’s the most troubling in our hour of need isn’t the trouble itself. We know how to overcome disaster, and often fare better afterwards than we had before. What’s the most troubling is that realization that we aren’t in control of our own lives, that, despite the façade of self-reliance, we are completely reliant on God for every good gift which we enjoy. Though life’s troubles bring a rebuke for not trusting the One whom even the winds and sea obey, we are reminded of the promise that our God has all things under His control.

The most important theological lesson in today’s Gospel, and that we learn in all of life’s troubles, Is that God is not like us. He does not submit to our ideas; His ways are not our ways, nor are His thoughts our thoughts. We live by faith, not by knowledge or understanding. Unlike us, Jesus does not consider appearances before He acts. He doesn’t care what people think, or what people think the right course of action may be. Because, whether we realize it or not, whatever He does is the right thing.

And that’s exactly where faith comes in. Especially in times of distress, it doesn’t seem like God is doing the right thing. He seems to be asleep, seems to be ignoring us. Think of all the evils that surround us. We’re no strangers to war, disease, famine, poverty, bigotry, sexism, racism, crime, addiction, the disintegration of the family, legalized murder of babies in their mother’s womb pawned off as a safe and consequence-free medical procedure. And then, as if we don’t have enough man-made problems, nature itself brings even more problems—hurricanes, tornadoes, frigid cold, drought, earthquakes. No matter how many social programs are put in place or how many engineering feats are made, nothing seems to stop the advance of evil and destruction. Our efforts are the equivalent of trying to control the lava from a volcano with a garbage bag.

So instead, we sleep the sleep of Jonah—delusional people thinking we can run away from life’s problems. Every food blog run by a picture-perfect stay-at-home mom and every episode of a home improvement show on HGTV are the world’s ways of lulling us into false security. We think that if we try hard enough, make Instagram-worthy meals and tear down enough walls to create an open floor plan complete with a farm sink and shiplap as far as the eye can see, our troubles will vanish. But they don’t. Meals bring dishes and discarded leftovers, and the inevitable return of hunger. Homes accumulate clutter from our never-ending quest to buy more stuff to buy and hoard our way to happiness. So, what’s left? The realization that we’re still drowning, that life is beyond our control. No matter how rose-colored our glasses, we still see the evil all around us, and panic sets in once more.

Repent. The safety from evil, the answer to life’s problems doesn’t lie in gadgets, possessions, beautiful homes and beautiful meals, or Leave it to Beaver-style spouses and children. The only answer is in prayer, in submitting in faith to the goodness of God and waiting on the Lord. Peace will come in due time. The storms will cease. Jesus is with you.

And what if He rebukes your attempt to paint over life’s troubles, for little faith, for your panic? Thanks be to God! Thanks be to God that you still have a smoldering wick of faith and that it knows where to go when troubles mount and seem like they will overwhelm you, that your faith still calls upon God in times of trouble, that still seeks salvation in Jesus. Thank God you are weak, because in weakness true strength is revealed. Though chastisement may come, God uses it to purify you, to teach you to rely solely on Him and not on yourself or on the things of this world. He will not let you ride out the storm in false confidence. He will keep you dependent upon Him.

What if your conscience is plagued by guilt and regret, by doubt and fear? What if you are weary? Thank God for that as well! It is faith that stirs your heart, that causes you to feel sorrow and shame. God works through those feelings to let you know that faith is alive and well, that it is doing its job of always pointing you to Him, to kill your self-reliance to find life in Him alone. Being broken by the Law is how He empties you of yourself to fill you with His love. He breaks you to mend you. He kills you to revive you. First comes the rebuke, then the calming of the storm. First the cross, then the glory.

Are you of little faith? Indeed. You are unworthy in every way. But God has made a promise with you. He has placed His Name upon you; He is your God and you are His child. He will deliver you from all evil and from the Evil One. Jesus is the greater Jonah who has calmed the sea of sin and evil with His self-sacrifice on the cross and by His three-day rest in the belly of the earth. Though He sends waves over the side of the boat to drive you to prayer, He will always give the peace according to His Word, and the faith that you lack. He gives you His Holy Spirit to bring you home. Then you will see clearly that your God always has all things under His control.

Today Our Lord teaches us about the importance of faith and prayer and the connection between the two. The two always go together. Just like Frank Sinatra taught us with “Love and Marriage”—you can’t have one without the other. Both the leper and the centurion present us with the image of faith and prayer. Both believe. Both confes that God alone can answer prayer. Through them we see that it’s faith that motivates us to pray, to reache out to the One it knows can and does answer all prayers. And it’s faith that accepts the answer, regardless of what it is. So, we see that it is very important to pray for the one thing we truly need, that is, faith to accept the answer God gives us when we pray. And when we pray for the thing that we need the most, the thing that guarantees our entrance into heaven because it receives all that Christ has done for us, God always answers that with a yes.

As we meet the leper, we see a man who has prayer as his only hope for help. Remember what the Law says about lepers. They are outcasts. They cannot touch anyone; no one can touch them. Coming within so many feet of a leper makes you unclean, even if you don’t touch them. So, they are completely cut off from the community. They may have spouses and children, but they are essentially dead because they cannot be with their families. They cannot go to the Temple. The only thing they can do is pray that God will relieve them of their disease. And as Jesus comes down from giving His Sermon on the Mount, the faithful leper approaches the Son of God with a perfect prayer: “Lord, if You will, You can make me clean.” Jesus, if it’s Your will, if You know it’s best for me, I know You will do it. The leper doesn’t beg. He doesn’t give ultimatums. He confesses: Jesus can do it, and if it’s right, He will. Jesus knows that this prayer comes from faith, and He knows that answering it with a yes is good for the man, so He does it.

We know how easy it is to pray with the leper and with Jesus, “Not my will, but Yours be done.” The words roll of our tongue without thinking about it as we pray the Lord’s Prayer and tell God, “Thy will be done.” But do we mean it? If we were to answer truthfully, the answer would be no. We know that part of us, our faith, believes it. But our flesh wars against it. Our flesh doesn’t want to accept God’s will over our own. How many of us, if we were the leper would pray: “Lord, if You will, You can make me clean. However, if You don’t want to, I will gladly bear the burden of this leprosy for the rest of my life.” The sinful nature inside every single one of us can never pray that prayer. It doesn’t believe it. My sinful nature wants what I want, when I want it. God is only useful when He acts like a vending machine, when He delivers exactly what product I’ve requested, and only that product.

Whatever God provides us, be it health and happiness, comfort and good things; or sorrow and trial, illness and want, we should gladly and willingly endure until the end of our lives. And how many of us just cringed a little bit at that? I’ll be honest. I wrote it, and I didn’t want to. I don’t want to be confronted with this Word of Law, what God expects of me and what I am unable to fulfill, that I should gladly and willingly endure any number of trials. But it’s what our faith prays for—the Holy Spirit-given strength to bear our crosses. As difficult as it is to pray that prayer, to tell God that we’re willing to endure the hardship if that’s His will and what’s best for us, we come to learn over time and through any number of crosses. We are increasingly able to pray that prayer because we see that God has never let us down. Each of us have been in situations in our lives where we thought we wouldn’t make it, where, even with God’s grace, our survival was uncertain. But, here you are. Your Lord carried the cross with you, and you endured. You emerged from the trial with a clearer understanding that your Lord will never leave you nor forsake you. He is and will be with you always. So, as hard as it is to say and mean, “not my will, but Yours be done,” the Holy Spirit strengthens our faith so we can say it with the leper and mean it.

And the centurion shows us exactly how that strengthening happens. It happens through the Word: “Lord, I am not worthy to have You come under my roof, but only say the Word, and my servant will be healed.” By the Word, the centurion was given great faith. It trusted all of God’s promises that He would take care of His creation, that He would forgive sins, and, most importantly, that He would send One who would save the world from its sins and usher in the new heaven and new earth where sin and leprosy and paralysis are no more. The centurion knew two things: first, that the Word of God is powerful, that it is living and active; and secondly, that he was unworthy to receive any help from Jesus, especially to have Him come to his house. He knew that Jesus could heal his servant with only a Word, so, just like the leper, he prayed for Jesus to act according to His good and gracious will. And Jesus, recognizing the greatness of the centurion’s faith acts and praises him for believing and being willing to accept the answer, whatever it was.

By His Word, Jesus does great things for you as well. By His Word spoken to you, He forgives you all your sins, especially all the times when you said “Thy will be done” and didn’t mean it, or those times when you felt that God let you down by not doing things your way. By His Word combined with water, He Baptizes you, making yours all that He did on the cross and in the tomb. By His Word combined with bread and wine, He comes under your roof, giving you the Body and Blood He sacrificed on the cross to heal your soul and give you forgiveness of your sins and strength to bear your crosses. By His Word read and preached to you He gives you His Holy Spirit who works good things in you, especially the ability to say and mean, “Thy will be done.” Through His Word, regardless of how it comes to you, your saving faith is created and strengthened.

And that faith is what is able to pray perfect prayers, and to accept the answer, whatever it is. It’s that faith that unites God’s true children of all times and places. It’s not a right for those of Hebrew descent, but a gift for all those from east and west, north and south who will come and sit at the feast of salvation. That faith is what carries you through every cross you bear on this side of eternity, and what guarantees your seat at the feast. The Holy Spirit will keep you in the faith, He will inspire your prayers, and He will be with you until you He brings you home.

The peace of God which passeth all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

As Jesus begins His public ministry, He begins it by teaching us to rely on Him for all things, and above all, to remember that the things of this life are secondary to the greatest thing He has come to give, which is our salvation.

All of this is brought about by a wedding, likely for one of Jesus’ relatives. As St. Mary helps make sure the wedding is running smoothly, she sees that a serious faux pas has come about—they are out of wine! This would be just as embarrassing as running out of food before all the guests have been served. Unsure of how to make it through this, St. Mary goes to her Son with an observation, “They have no wine.” You can almost hear a sigh at the end as she tells Jesus of the sad state of affairs. The unspoken part of her sentence is a defeated, “And there’s no hope of fixing this problem.” She doesn’t go to Jesus to guilt Him into making a trip to the store or even to do a trick and make the wine miraculously appear. She simply goes to complain that everything is ruined.

For this hopeless prayer, she is rebuked: “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” In other words, this is not why I have come. Jesus does not reveal Himself for who He truly is by doing miracles. Jesus’ hour is the time of His revelation to the world as the Savior whom God the Father has sent. A miracle like changing water into wine is an imperfect way of coming to see that Jesus is God in the flesh. At best, it shows that He can control nature. It shows nothing of His true purpose for coming. As will be seen when He feeds the five thousand, doing signs and wonders doesn’t necessarily result in faith, but in a desire to have physical needs met, and the people come to see Jesus as nothing more than a vending machine. The hour for His full revelation will be the cross, where His glory will be revealed as He is shown as He truly is, the God who forgives sins. Until that time, she is to believe, to trust that all things are under God’s control, even when it seems that they are not. Nonetheless, at least she recognized that Jesus was the only one who could help. In the midst of her doubt and despair, she had faith. This is the life of faith on this side of glory. The old man needs the Law to knock him down so that the Gospel can raise up the new man. A rebuke is not damnation. Jesus rebukes St. Mary so that she might repent. It works, and her faith is made stronger because of it.

Notice that Jesus does not promise a thing here. But she still believes. She believes that Jesus is God and that all things are possible for him. Her response to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it,” is a confession of faith. She knows that whatever happens, whether they have wine or not, does not matter, because it is the will of God and what is right for that situation and those people involved. She knows that Jesus is God and is reminded that He has come, not to give wine or bread or any other physical thing, but to save her. That is all that matters. And so He relents and makes glad the hearts of men. Be brings order from chaos, joy from sadness, hope from dejection, wine from water, and, most importantly, believers from unbelievers. He is the Creator present in His creation to recreate it, to restore it, to redeem it. And seeing this, His disciples believe in Him.

So, what of us? How often have we prayed dejected, hopeless prayers? How often have we complained against God that we aren’t thinner, healthier, richer, better looking? How often do we gladly go down that path of covetous depression and the sickly jealousy that leaves us dissatisfied with what we have? Instead of thanking God that He has given us His Son who has given us the one thing we truly need, we focus on everything we think we need, or everything that we don’t have that someone else does.

Repent, and know that God is good. His hour has come, and it has come for you. His hour was the time when the sun went dark, the earth shook, and the dead rose. The hour when thorns were driven into His head, nails into His hands and feet, and a spear into His side. His hour is the hour He submitted to the death which Adam’s sin won for all men so that we might live. He overcame that hour, rose from that death, and lives. And from that new life He gives joy.

But that doesn’t mean He has no concern for the things you need in this life, or even the things you want in this life. He will answer your prayers, even those that you fail to pray. He knows what you need, He knows your heart’s desire. But more importantly, He knows what is best and when it is best to give that aid. He teaches you, by way of the crosses you bear, by way of suffering, to have joy in sadness, triumph in defeat, and life in death. When every earthly prop gives way He is revealed as your only Hope and Stay. In your own crosses, your own suffering, your own miserable circumstances and obstacles, He teaches you to come to His Cross. There you find perfect joy and peace beyond all measure. He teaches you that He is your only Joy, your only Hope, the only thing you truly need. There, in Him, at His Cross, you will be content.

He helps you grow in your contentment by continuing to be present in His creation. He is with you always, and delivers His glorious Hour to you in the Cup which we bless. Here the fruit of the vine delivers His Blood He shed, which gives the benefit of His Hour on the cross, cleansing your dirty, sinful heart, removing your sadness and pain, and making you glad once again. Today Jesus comes you in another wedding of sorts, as He is made one with you and you one with Him. You are united to Him in a bond that no one, not even the devil himself, can sever. He gives you all of His good gifts and takes away all your sin, your guilt, your shame, and your discontentment with this life. He causes you to grow in His grace, to grow in contentment with all that He gives you, until He takes you to the place where He will give you every gift in abundance, His wedding feast where there is no end to the wine, no end to being one with Him forever.

Baptism is a good thing. Paul Gerhardt, a 17th century Lutheran Pastor wrote a Baptismal hymn, “All Christians Who Have Been Baptized.” In its fifth stanza he writes: “O Christian, firmly hold this gift and give God thanks forever! It gives the power to uplift in all that you endeavor. When nothing else revives your soul, your Baptism stands and makes you whole and then in death completes you.” When life is miserable, we as Christians get to say what we’ll sing during the Distribution: “I am Baptized into Christ!” Sin, disturb my soul no longer! Satan, hear this proclamation! Death, you cannot end my gladness! I am Baptized into Christ. As we look at the Baptism of Our Lord, we understand a little more why Baptism is so central to our faith and our Christian life.

For us, Baptism is a good thing. For Jesus, Baptism works the exact opposite. Where our Baptism takes away sin and death, it gives those things to Jesus. His Baptism in the Jordan isn’t necessary in the way ours is. Yes, in St. Matthew’s Gospel Jesus tells John the Baptist that it is necessary for them to do this to fulfill all righteousness. But that’s not because Jesus needs righteousness. He is righteousness incarnate! He has no sin of His own that needs absolving. Rather, He must submit to this action so that it can be a part of how His righteousness comes to us. You’ve heard Luther’s beautiful “Flood Prayer” that’s a part of our Baptismal liturgy. In it, he teaches us: “Through the Baptism in the Jordan of Your beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, You sanctified and instituted all waters to be a blessed flood and a lavish washing away of sin.” When plain water is combined with God’s Word, all of Jesus’ righteousness flows into and onto that person being Baptized. And it’s not just a “washing away of sin,” but a lavish washing away of sin. It does more than just wash away current sin. It washes away original sin, actual sin, and any sins that will be committed. Jesus doesn’t do anything half way. If he’s giving His righteousness, He’s giving it completely, for all time, lavishly, in ways that could never make sense to you and me.

And He does that because Jesus’ baptism is the exact opposite of yours. At your Baptism, sin was taken away from you and death was made your entrance into eternal life. At Jesus’ baptism, all sin was placed on His shoulders. Death was made His lot. Hell was made the reality which He would suffer. When you were Baptized, all your sin flowed through that water, through time, and back to the dirty waters of the Jordan and onto the sinless Son of God. Jesus wasn’t baptized in clean water, but in your filthy bathwater! That water, though it may not have appeared that way, was black with sin and death. It stunk with the pollution that Satan ushered in with his temptation of Adam and Eve. But Jesus willingly allowed Himself to be submerged in it. As John’s trembling hand pushed the sinless head of the Lamb under the water, he got to take part in the great exchange. He witnessed as Jesus was made the guiltiest sinner ever to live. John watched as Jesus took on his sin, your sin, my sin, the sin of the whole world. Jesus’ baptism wasn’t a happy occasion with cake and posing for pictures and relatives flying in from out of town. It was a solemn occasion, one marked with seriousness and consequence. It’s the visible start of His public ministry. From this point on, Jesus has one goal: the cross. And for the next three years He journeys towards it, carrying your sin on His shoulders. And He doesn’t begrudge it. He doesn’t do it with hesitation. He does it with determination, with love for you and all humanity.

At His Baptism God the Father spoke from heaven: “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Why was the Father pleased with His Son? Because He was anointed in the Jordan for the purpose of redeeming the world. He was started on His path to the cross. The Father is well pleased with Jesus because He is obedient and willing. He restores the broken relationship between God and man. The Son obeys the Father’s will. He wears your sin and shame and drowns it in His own Blood. He brings healing to all of your ills. He pardons your sin. Death is no longer your lot.

Because of Jesus, Baptism is a good thing. It’s not an act of your obedience, something you do to please God, but rather your reception of the Son’s obedience. Whether it was more years ago than you can remember or just a few months ago, when you were brought to the Font, you were brought to eternal life. You have been given a comfort second to none. There you were Baptized into Jesus’ death and resurrection. But Baptism is not a past tense thing. Yes, the action happened in the past, but it’s your present reality. You weren’t Baptized, you are Baptized into Christ. You are a sinless child of God. You are an heir of salvation. Jesus is your Substitute. He takes away sin and death from you forever. He gives you the Father’s love. He gives you comfort in your weakness and joy in your sadness.

Daily life in this world will kick you when you’re down. Because of sin—yours and others’—you will suffer. The Lord allows these things to come to help strengthen your faith. You may feel like you can’t lift another ounce. You may feel like you’re not cut out for one more test, one more trial, one more kick in the shins. But it’s going to come. It’s in those times that it’s easiest to give into despair, to get angry, to wonder why, how much longer. Jesus knows. He knows how much it hurts, how much it makes you question. He endured it, too. But the Lord strips you of every earthly support to get you to realize that your support is not of this world. Your support comes by way of the Holy Spirit doing His work of pointing you to Jesus. He acts like a spotlight that points your eyes to the font, to the Water, and your ears to the Word. When life is awful, and you can’t go on, listen for those words you probably don’t remember hearing, but were spoken over you: “I Baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Even if you have to say it through tears and sighs, say it boldly: “I am Baptized into Christ.” This is temporary. Sin, Satan, do what you will. You cannot rob me of this joy, this pleasure, this reality. I am God’s child. He loves me. He holds onto me. He will not let me go. He will not hand me over to you and to misery forever. I am Baptized into Christ. Heaven is mine. You are temporary. My joy is forever in Christ. I’m a child of paradise.

The peace of God which passeth all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

]]>Sun, 06 Jan 2019 08:00:00 GMThttp://www.epiphanydorr.org/sermons/the-epiphany-of-our-lord-2019Actions speak louder than words.” This is a phrase and a concept we all know. Another person can speak a promise to you, but his action of keeping that promise says much more than the mere promise. A spouse can say, “I love you,” but unless those words are backed up by actions of love and commitment, then the words ring hollow. “Actions speak louder than words.” Even without the expression, we all know how true it is.

It’s even truer for God, especially on this day of celebrating the Epiphany of our Lord. As soon as Adam and Eve had fallen into the deep, dark hole of sin and death, God made a promise to save them and the whole human race. You remember the promise. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15). God gave His promise, and the human race would eagerly wait to witness His actions of fulfilling that promise.

Through the centuries God gave plenty of actions to save and redeem His chosen people, Israel – the exodus from Egypt; the tabernacle worship; the royal line of David; the temple worship; the return from Babylonian exile. But what about the rest of the human race? The rest of the world was still waiting for God’s actions to confirm His gracious words. As we heard in our first reading, the Prophet Isaiah had promised God’s actions for all nations: “the LORD will arise upon you, and His glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.” And speaking of those nations from around the globe, Isaiah also said, “They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall bring the good news, the praises of the LORD.” Those were God’s words. Now, what about His actions to speak His grace and mercy loudly and clearly for all nations?

That’s what Epiphany is all about. God’s action in sending His Son into the world speaks quite loudly. The Son of God taking on human flesh to restore us to God’s favor and life with God speaks quite loudly. But if He had remained secluded in a tiny corner in the little town of Bethlehem, the rest of the world might have thought that God had failed to keep His promise. No, the Infant God in the flesh chose to reveal Himself beyond the bounds of Israel and to all nations. And His epiphany, His appearing, to the Magi speaks louder than words. Isaiah’s words gave the promise; Jesus’ appearing to the Magi gives the loud-sounding action.

We can see how the actions of the Magi spoke at first. They sought the newborn King of the Jews, and so they journeyed to Jerusalem. Resting on their own wisdom, their actions showed that they didn’t quite get it, not just yet. The divine King would not be found in the human centers of power. They still needed to hear the words and promises of God. But once they are corrected by the Word and sent in the right direction with the star’s leading, their actions confess what God has revealed to them. They Magi say absolutely nothing. Their actions confess for them. “And going into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother and they fell down and worshiped Him.” Their worship did not make Him the Christ-Child. Their worship did not cause Him to come and appear for all nations to receive. Rather, they fell down and worshiped because that’s just what you do when you come into the presence of the living God. Actions speak louder than words! Being in the presence of the Creator and Savior of the world calls for different actions, things you don’t do everyday.

“Then, opening their treasures, they offered Him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.” The gifts proclaim the truth of who Jesus is, even if the magi didn’t fully understand what they were giving. The gold was for the King, the incense, for God, and the myrrh, for Man. The action of this offering spoke quite loudly: this Child is the God-Man, the King who comes to save all people from their sins. This royal Child, God in humble human guise, comes specifically to live our human life, to die our death, and to bring us back to life with God. After all, it’s through His death on a cross that He conquers death and forgives sins. And since He is God in the flesh, death cannot contain Him. His resurrection brings life for all who cling to Him in faith, for all who bow down before Him. Yes, actions speak louder than words. His actions rescue and redeem us, and they free us to bow before Him just as the Magi did.

This is the great mystery that St. Paul proclaims to us today. This Christ Child, this Infant Savior, comes not just for Israelites, but also for us Gentiles. This Infant King who would ascend the throne of His cross comes not just for the “good religious people,” but also for sinners such as us. St. Paul said it this way: “This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” God’s actions in sending His Son and revealing Him to the nations spoke quite loudly: He reconciles all people – even us – to Himself!

So, what about our actions in response? Do our actions speak loudly that we are followers of the Holy Child? Do they speak loudly and clearly that this Holy Child is the God-Man who comes to reconcile us with God? What kind of confession do our words and actions make when we’re outside of this place. We know they don’t. So that’s why we come here week after week and repeat the same words and actions. We confess, in word and posture, that we are sinners. But more than that, we are redeemed sinners, children of God who have been cleansed by His Blood. It’s why we sing our alleluias, why we kneel in joyful reception of the One who saved us from sin. It’s why we gladly return to Him a portion of what He has given to us, so that He can redeem our worldly money and give it back to us in the form of an eternal gift.Thanks be to God that His words and actions match up, especially when ours do not. He has sent His Son, born in our flesh, to save us. He reveals this Son as the universal Savior. That same Son, though crucified, risen, and ascended into heaven and seated at the right hand of God the Father, defies laws of this physical world to come to us each week in Word and Sacrament, to forgive, renew, and strengthen us. For all of that, our actions mimic that of the magi. We kneel down in worship, in thanksgiving, before the One who has given us great mercy. But we do not kneel to give a gift, as if He needed it, but to receive even more from Him. And His actions speak louder than words as He gives us every good gift, especially the one of eternal life with Him in His kingdom which has no end.

Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” This is part of Elizabeth’s conversation with Mary just a few months before Christmas, as Mary visits her relative ahead of the birth of John the Baptist. What Elizabeth is saying is that God always keeps His promises. He has never let His people down. What He says, He does. He may not fulfill His promises immediately, but when the time is right, He does.

He promised Israel that He would give them their own land, that they would prosper and become a mighty nation. But as they languished under Egyptian slavery, it didn’t seem like He would. But then He raised up Moses who came and told Pharaoh, “Let my people go.” He didn’t at first, but God kept His promise. The children of Israel crossed the Red Sea on dry ground and left Egypt. Forty years later, they entered the land promised to them by God.

But we know what happens in Israel’s history. They disobey greatly and over time they are divided and eventually overtaken. They are carried off into exile by Babylon’s sad waters. But God promised them comfort. He promised that they would be brought back to their own land, He promised them that their iniquity and warfare would end. And in His good time He fulfilled that promise and they returned from exile.

But most importantly God promised a Savior from sin and death. All the way back in the Garden of Eden He promised one who would crush the Serpent’s head. For 42 generations God’s people wait. Adam and Eve told Seth. Abraham told Isaac. Jesse told David. Jeconiah told Shealtiel. Each generation’s faithful remnant heard again and again the promise: the sin-destroyer would come, He would be born of a Virgin, He would be a shoot from the stump of Jesse. And then the forty-second generation came. Gabriel told Joseph and Mary that the Messiah had come, Jesus, the One who would save His people from their sin. Finally, the fulfillment of what was spoken by the Lord some four thousand years had come.

Today we heard about two more people from that faithful remnant, Simeon and Anna. These aged saints waited eagerly for God to keep His promise. Simeon had been promised by God that he would not see death until he had seen the Christ. So he waited and waited. He went to the Temple. He lived faithfully. Imagine him looking at every baby boy, wondering if that was the one sent by God. Imagine Anna, the elderly woman, fasting, praying, never leaving the Temple, knowing that soon the Lord would fill it again just as He had the first Temple so many years ago. And then the day finally came. God kept His promise. Simeon rejoiced that he could now depart in peace because God had kept His Word. He held in his arms the infant Savior! Surely it wasn’t easy waiting for God to keep His promise. But they waited in faith. They waited knowing that God was not a liar, that He would never break His Word. And finally their faith was rewarded as faith met its fulfillment.

And God has made promises to you, too, promises that He will not break. He has promised to be with you always, to preserve you in this body and life, to give you a way of escape in times of temptation, to help you strengthen your faith, to forgive you when you sin, and to take you to your eternal home. And that’s just a few of the promises He has made to you! And He keeps every one of them. Our problem, of course, is the timing and the appearance. We don’t like waiting on God’s timing. God doesn’t work on our time table. God believes in the fullness of time, or, keeping His promise in the time and way that’s best for you and your eternal life. And because God’s ways are not our ways, it often seems like we’re Simeon and Anna, waiting for what seems like forever for God to keep His promise. We wonder if He’ll really keep it. If he’s really paying attention. If He really cares. The devil’s playground is God’s timing and our imagination. Scripture doesn’t tell us much about Simeon, but imagine how much the devil worked in him! We know that the devil’s objective is to destroy faith. So, for someone as faithful as Simeon, the devil had to be working overtime to get him to reject God’s promise, to call God a liar, to turn his back on God who seems to have forgotten His promise to let Simeon see the Messiah. Which, of course, is the same string of deceptions the devil whispers into your ear when life is difficult. Does God really care? Is God really taking care of you? Will He really keep His promise?

And, of course, the answer is yes. God will not break His promise made to you, just as He did not break the promise mad to Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, and every generation since the world began. Like Simeon and Anna, God teaches us by means of waiting. Patience is never an easily acquired trait. But God helps us strengthen our faith by sustaining us in the times when we must wait. He comes to you in the gifts of the Divine Service to remind you that He is right here with you. He lives up to His name, Emmanuel, God with us, by being with you today in Word and Sacrament. He is with you daily because you are Baptized into Him. At the Font He claimed you and brought you into His family, with all the gifts and privileges that come as a part of being in that family. Through these Means of Grace He shows you how He keeps His promises. Through them He strengthens your faith, which makes those times easier to endure when His answer seems to be no, or when you must wait for the desired outcome.

God always keeps His promises. He kept His promise to forgive you, to rescue you from sin, death, and the devil by sending Jesus Christ to live a perfect life for you, to die in your place, and to rise from the dead, thus defeating your death forever. Because of Christ sin and death have no hold on you, their sting is lost forever. He kept His promise to Simeon and Anna and all the faithful who had gone before that their longing would be rewarded. He keeps His promise to you and by His Holy Spirit sustains you in the true faith. He keeps His promise and rewards your longing for eternal life, for an end to the sin and sadness and frustration that are the lot of this daily life, by taking you to His side. Though it’s hard waiting for that gift given at your Baptism, God will sustain you until it becomes your present reality. God always keeps His promises.